Baby's First Year Album Tutorial

I've made a few of these baby's first year albums for family and friends, and thought I'd post a quick little tutorial for how to make them.  They make great baby shower gifts or even a good way to get an easy album for your own kids made before the baby is born!  Plus, it's easy to fill in and keep up with!

Start with a 3-ring binder album. I like the We R Memory Keepers Faux Leather albums with a bookplate spine.  This one is navy, though it looks black in the photo.

Next, pick a patterned paper collection to use throughout the book.  For this album, I used the Basic Grey Oliver Collection.  The collection pack comes with some alphabet stickers and themed stickers as well.

Create a front page.  I like to leave a photo mat for a 5 x 7 photo.  I like to think it'll be filled in with a newborn photo.

Each month of the year gets a calendar journaling page.  I just made a template in Microsoft Word, added the correct numbers for the month, and then printed it on gray cardstock.

Once all the pages are printed, to make it a little more handmade I add a stamped month & year and a few strips of patterned paper.  These pages are housed in regular 8.5" x 11" page protectors.

Next, for each month, I make double-sided journaling tags, and fill in the spaces of a 2-up photo sleeves page protector.  Each tag gets a journaling stamp & some patterned paper details.  Later, the tags can be filled in with journaling information about the photos that are added from that month.

The last page for each month is a printed "milestones" page to record important details like height, weight, eating and sleeping habits, etc.  This page is also printed on gray cardstock with patterned paper details.  I made the template for it in Microsoft Word. For this particular album, I used my Silhouette to cut the numbers for each month as well.

All that's left is a "one" page at the end of the book.  Again, I left a photo mat for a 5 x 7 photo to be added later.

It's a pretty easy-to-make, assembly-line style album and can be completed in a couple of days. Since it's handmade and can be personalized to match the decor for any nursery or with the baby's name, etc., it makes a special gift.

Here are some other versions of the album that I've made before:

Twin Books:

Gender-Neutral Baby Album: